1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to slaughtering, and more particularly to the task of orienting live poultry in preparation for automated slaughtering and butchering.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The processing (slaughtering and butchering) of chickens is today becoming highly mechanized. Many automated processes are performed while a chicken is suspended, by its feet or legs, from a shackle conveyor which carries the bird through various stations. While some process steps can be done completely by machine, or with only incidental human intervention or supervision, other steps are still done by hand. One such step is the initial step of loading live birds into a shackle conveyor. This is an unpleasant task, during which the handlers are exposed to dust, feathers, fecal matter and so forth. The birds, in addition, are frequently damaged by impatient handlers, which may result in a product with bruised meat, or broken bones.
For these reasons, there is interest in automating the loading of live birds into a shackle conveyor. The difficulties can be imagined. Although chickens are not the most intelligent creatures, they are smart enough to resist the capturing process, and would certainly not be expected to assist it. We have found, however, that we can cause chickens, situated at random orientations on a surface, to orient themselves in a common direction. Once chickens are aligned the same way, the automating of the hanging process will be a simpler matter. This invention is directed only to the orienting step; it is expected that this invention will enable others to automate the hanging step.
Various attempts have been made by others to orient chickens, for example, by blowing a gas at a chicken from a particular direction, or by passing the chicken over a series of non-aligned conveyor intersections. None of these methods has proven workable, and many such proposals are expensive and complicated, certainly more so than the invention described below.